Back in a Flash
by Trikey
Summary: Wally's back, but it's not all butterflies and rainbows.
1. Chapter 1

((This chapter is mostly setting stuff up, and I guess right now it's technically all Spitfire, but don't expect it to stay that way.

Young Justice belongs to DC and all that.))

The first thing to greet Wally's eyes when he woke up was the broken ceiling of a derelict old barn.

What caught his attention, though, were the strange symbols written on the weather-beaten beams in-was that blood? It was hard to tell from a distance. The speedster absentmindedly tried to push himself into a sitting position, but found his hands wouldn't move. He turned to see what was holding him down and saw what would be giving him nightmares for a long while afterwards.

The same strange symbols as the ones on the ceiling ringed the place where he was laying, this time definitely written in blood, since some poor animal's corpse was laying just outside of the ring. There were other things inside of the circle, though, that were just as terrifying. An enormous skull from some unknown carnivore leered up at him from down near his legs, and what seemed to be a partially-decayed human hand was resting next to his own, which was, by the way, covered in blood and tied to a bolt in the floor. In fact, pretty much everything was covered in blood, including his Kid Flash uniform, and Wally hoped desperately that it hadn't come from a human being. He carefully avoided looking past those two items, sure that there was probably something worse on the other side. Wally was just glad the bolt wasn't stuck /through/ his hand at this point.

Easily vibrating through the bonds holding his hands, the speedster sat up carefully and tried to remember how on earth he had gotten here. The last thing he remembered was kissing Artemis, and then... dying.

Wally felt a sudden wave of nausea at that last memory. It had been terrifying to die, and Wally had taken a bit of solace in the fact that he wouldn't have to relive it, but now the memory of his last few seconds was replaying in his head and he felt like he was about to lose what little was in his stomach.

His hunger was enough of a distraction to pull him out of his memories as his stomach growled. Wally had no idea what day it was or how long it had been since he had eaten, but if he didn't get food soon his metabolism would start destroying his insides. Quickly untying his feet, the speedster stood up shakily and stumbled to the open barn door.

His mood got distinctly worse as he realized that he was in the middle of nowhere. The only landmark nearby was a two-lane highway that cut through the enormous field of grass that spanned Wally's entire frame of view.

It took Wally maybe ten minutes to shakily walk to the highway, at which point favor smiled upon him and he found an emergency phone situated to the side of the road. He sped over to it, too impatient to conserve energy and very aware that he was still covered in blood.

Picking up the phone, he dialed the first number he could think of and waited for someone to pick up.

After a few moments, he heard someone pick up the phone. "Who is this?" the person asked, sounding a bit exasperated.

"...Artemis?" the speedster asked tentatively. "It's Wally."

There was a gasp from the other side of the line, and then "don't move, I'm coming" before Artemis hung up and left Wally standing there with the phone still to his ear.

Minutes later the Batplane came screaming into view, skidding to a halt in front of him on the highway. Wally was a little surprised to see Nightwing jump out of the cockpit, but his old friend didn't seem surprised to see Wally in his Kid Flash uniform and, y'know, covered in blood.

"Get in," Nightwing ordered curtly, and Wally's expectant smile deteriorated into a frown. So instead of his girlfriend, he got a stone-faced Dick. Pun intended.

"So, uh, we going back to HQ or something?" the speedster asked, quickly settling himself into the second seat. "I suppose Artemis called you. Sorry I didn't call you in the first place, I forgot your number-"

"Wally, I don't think you understand the situation here," Nightwing interrupted as he started the plane back up. "You've been dead for a year."

Wally took a moment to process that phrase. A year? That was way too long. No wonder Artemis was surprised to hear his voice. His attention was brought back to the present as he realized that Nightwing was still talking.

"...And now you show back up in the middle of nowhere. We're not even sure that you're you," the other hero finished, turning around in his seat to look at Wally. "You could be a shapeshifter or something, or this could be another cyborg Superman kind of thing, so until the League figures out what's going on you need to just stay put and try not to get anyone's hopes up too much."

Wally sat back in his seat with a frustrated sigh. "You can't even let me see Artemis? Come on, I can convince you that I'm me, just let me have a few pizzas and I'll prove it-"

"Shut up!" Nightwing said, now shooting daggers at Wally through his mask, and Wally wondered what all he had missed in the past year. Dick's frustration was starting to really confuse him. "You were gone for a year, Wally," Nightwing continued in a more controlled tone. "I... We... aren't going to be able to just pretend you never left. So stay whelmed until we figure this out, okay?"

"Of course, Dick, you coulda just said so," Wally replied, his mood too sour to be brought all the way back to normal. "Just do whatever you need to so I can go home."

"That's the idea," Nightwing confirmed, seemingly a bit less frustrated now, and turned back around to face the controls. "Just hold tight and don't let Batman bother you."

Wally tried to ask what was up with Batman when Nightwing hit the gas and he was pushed back into his seat as the plane took off.

As soon as they reached the Hall of Justice and got out of the plane, Batman rushed out onto the landing pad. "Come with me" was all he said, grabbing Wally's arm with a vice-like grip and pulling him down a few hallways and into a zeta tube.

They re-emerged in the Watchtower, where Batman continued to drag Wally down another few hallways, ignoring Wally's complaints about his arm and questions as to their destination. He finally opened a seemingly random door and pushed Wally inside.

The room was, in fact, an interrogation room, Wally realized with an increasing feeling of dread. Batman had rushed him in here too quickly to allow time for any substantial protest, too. On the bright side, it seemed to double as a prison cell, with a small shower nozzle and a set of clothes layed out for him, as well as a bed that he hoped he wouldn't be using. The speedster glanced at the one-way glass that took up one wall of the room doubtfully, then decided that whoever was watching could deal with seeing his ass for a bit. It was either that or sitting through an interview with Batman while still covered in congealed blood, and Wally was not quite up for that at the moment.

Wally was sitting at the table that took up a majority of the room, having changed his clothes and gotten most of the blood off, when the door opened and Batman strode in. After sitting down across from Wally and twitching his cape into a comfortable position, he immediately got down to business.

"You're aware that you were considered dead for a year, correct?"

"Yeah, Nightwing told me," Wally replied impatiently. "You going to tell me what you're planning on doing with me?"

The eye slits in Batman's mask narrowed, but ignored the question and continued on. "Where were you when you woke up?"

"In a field somewhere," Wally easily fibbed, purposefully leaving out the part about the barn full of blood and body parts. No need to tell Batman that he was part of a satanic ritual.

"Did Nightwing tell you anything else?" Batman asked, turning to glare at the one-way glass before returning his gaze to Wally.

"No, not really," came Wally's response. "Just that you guys are worried that I'm not me."

Batman nodded and stood up, apparently satisfied with that response."We're going to do some tests now to compare your vital signs to the ones we have in our records. Refusing to cooperate will mean that we'll have to assume you're not, as you put it, you." The hero stood up and was almost out of the door when something else seemed to occur to him.

"By the way," Batman added turning back to Wally, "The Flash died while you were gone. If you do prove to be Wally West, we'll be offering you his position in the League." And with that he shut the door, leaving Wally to deal with the bombshell he had just dropped.

Wally barely moved an inch from where Batman had left him, sans moving an arm to hold a bandage over the vein in his elbow where his blood test was taken. He should've been there, there must've been something he could've done, even though he had no idea when or where his mentor had died, not to mention that Wally had been dead during the whole event. Batman hadn't told him any of the details, how did he expect him to react? Wally wasn't even sure he could trust that the Dark Knight was telling the truth, considering he didn't trust Wally either. And Wally just kept reminding himself that Barry was dead and that he was never going to see him again, and by the time Batman re-entered the room Wally had descended into a cloud of worry and depression.

"So, your blood test and fingerprints check out," Batman began, raising a masked eyebrow when Wally flinched at his words. "Have you been considering what I said about taking your mentor's position as the Flash?"

Wally swallowed thickly and didn't respond for a good minute. "...I, uh... I guess someone has to do it," he said eventually. "I'll have to move to Central, huh... guess I should tell Artemis..."

Batman leaned back in his chair. Wally guessed that he had been hoping that Barry would be replaced, mostly because he seemed a lot less like he was trying to be intimidating now. "Artemis will be informed and the League will find a place for you to stay. Right now you'll need to go get a new uniform, since I don't think the old one will be fitting you. Follow me."

Wally was given a moment to process that last terse sentence, then Batman was pulling him by the arm again to somewhere else in the Watchtower.

After an hour or so of being wrapped in tape measures, Wally was escorted to what he guessed was his new house by a civvied up but still-silent Nightwing. Not that Wally blamed him, since the speedster wasn't up for much talking either. Something was off about the whole thing at the Watchtower... Batman had been too quick to sign Wally up for being the Flash, especially when he had made it clear that he didn't trust Wally. Everything was going too fast, really. The last couple of hours felt like at least a week, and the speedster was having trouble keeping up with it all.

The present slapped Wally in the face as the car jerked to a halt when Nightwing hit the brakes, apparently having trouble finding somewhere to park on the crowded streets of Central City. All thoughts of Batman and the League suddenly miles away, Wally peered out the window to check out the neighborhood. If they had gotten him some crappy apartment, Artemis was going to kill him.

Thankfully, however, they seemed to be in the suburbs. Dick pulled the car into a generic-looking driveway, still grumbling a little about the jerk driving in front of him not knowing where he was going.

"Well, here's your place," the hero said, turning around to check on Wally through his sunglasses. "All your stuff has been moved already, and I think Artemis is here too. Oh, and one more thing," he added, grabbing Wally's hand before he could escape and run off to his girlfriend. "Catch up on the news, okay? Anything you can find. I'm sure there's stuff Batman didn't tell you."

Wally nodded quickly, too impatient to pay much attention to Dick's warning. "Don't worry, I won't miss anything," he confirmed, then zipped out of the car before Dick could say anything else. He had been waiting far too long to get back to Artemis.

"...Wally?" And speak of the devil, there she was. Well, not really the devil, more like a really hot angel. Artemis was standing in the doorway of the house, looking somewhat tired but otherwise just like Wally remembered her. Wally sped over to the door, genuinely smiling for the first time since he had died, and wrapped his girlfriend in a tight hug. It took her a moment to hug back, but then she was smiling too when Wally finally pulled himself away. "You're back," she said somewhat incredulously, staring at the speedster with wide eyes.

"You really think I'd leave you all alone?" Wally replied, his grin widening. "Now come on, let's go see this new house," he added before Artemis could question him much.

Artemis's smile faltered for a moment and put a small dent in Wally's relative level of happiness. "You're gonna have to explain what's going on here, Wally," she said, glancing back inside the house and biting her lip nervously. "A couple of League members just showed up and said we were moving, and nobody would tell me anything."

Wally's smile started to disappear as well when Artemis reminded him about what he had just signed up for. And Artemis had just used that you-better-make-something-good-out-of-this tone he easily recognized. "Well, uh, it's a long story," he said, moving around Artemis and into the house so he wouldn't have to look at her. She always knew when he was feeling guilty about something. "Let's clean some of this stuff up first, huh? We can't just live out of boxes here."

"Wally..." came Artemis's warning. "I just got pulled out of our old house and I'd like to know why. And I know you're not telling me."

"Can't I at least eat first? I don't think I've eaten in a year-"

Artemis, nearly glaring now, advanced towards Wally until he was forced to back up into a cupboard. "You did something stupid already and you haven't even been back alive for twenty-four hours? What the hell did you do?"

Wally gave an attempt at a smile. "Well, I was kind of messed up 'cause Batman had just told me about Barry, and I didn't really think about the implications at the time, but I kinda, y'know, signed up to be the Flash...?"

Artemis was silent for a moment. "...You could've just said so," she said eventually. "I know how much he meant to you. I can just... learn to deal with all this." She gestured almost helplessly at the boxes stacked around the room, and Wally felt a bit of guilt at the sight.

"Hey, I'm living here too, I'm helping," Wally objected a little jokingly, reaching over to hold Artemis's hand. "Let's just unpack the sheets and stuff so we can get some sleep, 'cause I think we're both way too stressed right now to do much."

Artemis looked like she was going to object and also possibly start crying due to stress, but after a moment of hesitation she instead pointed Wally in the direction of bedroom and he got to work setting up the bed.

By the time he had figured out which box even had the sheets inside, it was nearly nine, and after another hour of putting some necessities in the bathroom and finding some more clothes, they both just about fell into bed without bothering with blankets or even conversation. Wally carefully wrapped an arm around Artemis's waist in attempt to make her feel better, and by the slight smile tugging at the corners of her mouth he considered it a small success. Maybe he'd talk to her some more tomorrow. Within a few minutes of that thought he was asleep, with Artemis following seconds later.

Maybe a half-hour later, Wally jolted awake, nearly biting his hand to keep from yelling and waking up Artemis. As the nightmares he had just seen started to play again in his mind, memories of dying and waking up that day, as well as things from between those two points that he couldn't quite pull into conscious memory, he pulled his legs in toward his chest and tried to go back to sleep. He'd never hear the end of it if he woke Artemis up for some silly nightmare, and it wasn't like it'd be recurring.

Hopefully.


	2. Chapter 2

((Just gonna repeat that I don't pretend to own these characters and that this is definitely not Spitfire, so if you're expecting Spitfire you should probably stop after this chapter or even just stop now that's good too

Also chapter length is going to vary based on what cutoff points I can find, ex. this chapter is short because the next chapter is almost all one long continuous thing and I can't just cut the story wherever I want

This is mostly what affects how long it takes to write these things so sorry it's gonna be a little while))

* * *

Artemis entered the kitchen to find Wally sitting at the table, staring tiredly at a half-empty cup of coffee.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked, jolting Wally back to a more conscious state.

"...Just couldn't sleep," the speedster responded after a moment. His eyes shifted back down to the cup as he spoke, and he tried not to let Artemis see his hands shaking as he reached for the handle. She'd just get mad if she knew.

"So, uh, I'm gonna go find a new job," Artemis continued after a brief awkward pause. "I guess you'll probably just be staying here, so if you could unpack some more of the boxes that'd be great." Wally didn't respond and Artemis sighed before procuring some clothes from another box. "I'm going to go take a shower, alright? And then I'll be gone." She left Wally still sitting motionless at the table.

Half an hour later, when Artemis left the house, Wally had finally gotten himself up out of his chair and into the shower. The hot water woke him up a bit, thankfully, enough to possibly get out of the house. It'd be good to look around considering Wally was supposed to be the city's hero now. Some hero he was turning out to be so far, afraid of some stupid nightmares.

On his way out, Wally nearly tripped on something in the doorway. After recovering his balance, he reached down and picked up a small package that had been left in front of their door. It didn't have any label, but as soon as Wally opened it he realized who it was from. A ring with the Flash insignia glinted up at him from the box, though Wally knew that inside the ring was his Flash uniform, stored the same exact way his mentor's had been. Funny how Batman and the League almost seemed intent upon replacing Barry entirely. Wally put the ring on anyways, on the off chance that any trouble showed up.

A few blocks of walking later, Wally had managed to find his way to Central City's downtown area. He was engrossed in making a mental map of the area as he walked, until he almost stepped into oncoming traffic and realized that he should be paying a bit more attention. Now that the speedster glanced around, he noticed how crowded the city was today. It must've been commute hour too, and Wally wondered vaguely if this was the kind of time villains used to get the maximum number of human shields.

His thought was followed almost immediately by a scream from another street over. It was followed by a few more, plus the sounds of crumbling concrete this time, and Wally realized that he had been rooted to the spot where he stood. He jumped into action, scooting into an alleyway and popping the compartment on his ring open. After a few seconds of struggling with the spandex uniform at super speed Wally finally managed to pull it on, then he sped out of the alley and towards the commotion.

The source of all of the screaming, Wally discovered as he got closer, was the destroyed front of one of the taller buildings in the city. The perpetrator seemed to still be in the building, since all of the civilians inside were fleeing out of the now-enlarged entryway, so Wally zipped past them and into the building's lobby. Some of the people escaping the building gasped as he sped past, recognizing his uniform, but there wasn't time to stop for a press conference; someone who could crush the wall of a building was a serious threat, and Wally wasn't familiar enough with the Flash's rogues to guess who it might be.

The speedster skidded to a halt in front of the building's vault. It seemed to be some kind of high-end hotel, judging by the enormous, gilded vault door that had been ripped off its hinges and tossed to the side like a discarded candy wrapper. And, of course, there was the guy who had done it, standing in the doorway of the vault with his back to Wally. All Wally could see was some dark jeans and a hooded sweatshirt covering some broad shoulders, but the guy's hood was up and the shadows in the vault were dark enough that it was impossible to see who it was.

"Hey, you!" Wally called out, for lack of a better witty comment. He needed to work on those. It did the trick, though, as the person standing in front of him turned around slowly. "Yeah, you," Wally continued, gaining a bit of confidence. "Come on, get out of there before I make y-"

A fist slammed into Wally's stomach and he almost doubled over in pain. How on earth had that guy gotten over to him so fast? He was strong enough to make Wally glad he hadn't eaten anything for breakfast, but Wally couldn't think of anyone who was fast too.

Another blow hit him in the back and Wally realized that he needed to start running. Way to be stupid, Wally. Recovering quickly and zipping around in a quick circle, he ran up to the villain and tried to sweep a leg into his shins and knock him over.

The maneuver worked, with Wally's opponent falling backwards to land on his back, but Wally's leg would probably be developing an enormous bruise later. It felt like he was kicking a stone post. There was no way he was going to beat this guy on his first day out. He'd have to draw on some of the stuff he learned back when he was on the team to even get out of this relatively unscathed.

As his opponent pushed himself to his feet, Wally glanced around for something he could use to incapacitate the guy. Unfortunately, the only thing around that might hold down someone with super strength was the vault door, and there was no way Wally would be able to move that massive thing. Instead he refocused on the problem at hand. Sweatshirt villain was on his feet now, and Wally needed to get back in action. He pulled the first move that came to mind, speeding around to the villain's other side again to slam into him from the back. The maneuver would've worked better if Dick had been there to trip the guy at the same time, but it was enough to knock him off balance.

Well, maybe not entirely off balance, as he was still able reach around and grab Wally so he could fling the speedster into a wall.  
Wally could feel more bruises forming as he shakily pulled himself out of the remains of the wall. It was like his opponent saw the whole thing coming somehow; Wally thought he had been fast enough to surprise the guy, but maybe he wasn't quite up to speed yet. It had technically been a year since he last fought anyone, hadn't it?

His thoughts were cut short as he realized that the villain was approaching him again. The speedster quickly stumbled to his feet and tried to run past his opponent, but an arm reached out to grab the Wally and the wind was knocked out of him as he ran right into it.

The villain must've been hiding some serious armor underneath that sweatshirt, 'cause Wally had to fall to his knees and gasp for breath after that blow. He knew he had to stand up, because he was utterly defenseless in this position, but before he could make a move something hit his head from behind and he fell forward into the pavement face-first. Stars popped up behind his eyes and he grunted in pain as he was hit again, and then one more blow made everything go dark.

Wally blinked his way back to consciousness, then wished he hadn't as a throbbing pain in the back of his head materialized. Putting a hand to his head and sitting up as far as he could, he discovered that he was laying on his couch. Weird, since he hadn't realized that Artemis had brought the old couch along.

Suddenly Wally remembered what he had been doing before he blacked out, and he swung his legs around to a sitting position. He was supposed to be laying on the floor in a destroyed hotel, not at home with all of his cuts and scrapes patched up. "Artemis?" he called out tentatively, but there was no response. Maybe she left. She'd have to tell him how she even found him when she got back. Wally sure hoped it was Artemis who had brought him home, at least, because if it wasn't her... Wally pushed the thought away and decided to ignore the impossibilities of Artemis saving him.

After a moment Wally managed to stand up and walk into the kitchen to hunt for food. He was going to be pretty sore from that embarrassing beating, but at least he'd survive. Whoever that villain was had a thing coming if he thought that Wally wasn't going to find him again. And next time he was going to-

Wally froze, a shiver of fear running down his spine, as he suddenly noticed the small note that was sitting on the counter. It wasn't Artemis's handwriting, or from anyone else that he might recognize. All it said was, "Sorry."


	3. Chapter 3

I am very very sorry that this took so long, but tbh I hadn't actually seen the last few episodes of YJ before I started writing this. Tumblr had already told me what would happen and I just didn't want to see it, but I finally actually watched the episodes and finished this chapter and now I can get on with everything.

Sorry 'bout that.

* * *

"You sure you don't want to tell me what's going on?"

Wally nodded to Zatanna for probably the fifth time. "Sorry, it's personal stuff." He glanced down the hallway, wishing he had picked a better place than the Watchtower to have this exchange. At least he was in his Flash uniform, since Batman had taken the liberty of making him a few copies of his suit in case one was destroyed.

Zatanna just sighed and looked at the note again. "Alright, if you insist," she said, then paused for a moment before chanting out a spell. Wally vaguely recognized the backwards versions of 'trace' and 'writer' somewhere in the jumble before the note in Zatanna's hand started to glow softly.

"Here," she said, handing the note back to Wally. "Hold on to this. Be careful with it; it'll get pretty hot when you get close to whoever you're tracking."

"Thanks," Wally replied quickly, turning to zip down the hallway and into the zeta tube in the entryway. "I'll tell you if I find the guy!" he called back to a frowning Zatanna before the zeta tube activated and everything disappeared in a flash of yellow light.

The zeta tube dumped him back in Central City, which apparently wasn't anywhere near the person he was looking for, judging by how the note in Wally's hand was positively neutral.

Thankfully he was still dressed as the Flash, so it was easy for him to quickly circle the city, checking for the direction that would make the note warm up. After a few laps, he determined that it was pointing him generally towards the west, and he set off in that direction. He'd tell Artemis about it when he got back.

Around about the thousand-mile mark, Wally hit a small-ish town that seemed to be the stereotypical quiet, rural area where old people went to retire. Well, no, scratch that-there was some kind of standoff going on in front of a local store.

Wally slowed down to get a better look at what was going on. Maybe he could take a break from his mission to do a bit of heroing. There were maybe five or so cops, all sheltered behind their cars, and a guy with a gun standing in the doorway of the store yelling about something. Wally smirked. Easy. He skidded to a halt and ducked down behind one of the cop cars. "Hey," he said, saluting the police officer hiding behind the car.

The man, a more heavyset officer who probably hadn't seen this kind of action in ages, seemed genuinely surprised to see him. "T-the Flash? What're you doing here?"

Wally smiled in an effort to seem benevolent. "Just out here doing an errand. I can take care of this problem for you quick, though." Before the officer could respond, though, another cop seized the chance and jumped out from his hiding place to take a shot at the guy in the store doorway.

Wally immediately sped around to where the officer was standing and tackled him out of the way behind another car. And just in time, too; as they fell he felt a bullet streak by his shoulder, likely right were the officer had been standing a moment before. As Wally's focus returned to the situation, he realized that the officer was talking to him.

"...damn it, Wally, I could've gotten the guy," the officer was saying, trying to get to his feet. The speedster hurried to help him up, but then paused. Had he just... said Wally's name?

"...Oh, shit, sorry," the cop said, sounding a bit apologetic now, though he was still frowning. He reached a hand up to Wally from where he was still sitting on the ground. "Really, though, can I get a little help here?"

Wally was very, very confused for a moment before he realized where he recognized the officer from.

"Conner, you jerk, you don't just shout people's secret identities out for the world to hear," he hissed at his old teammate as he helped him to his feet. "I swear, if anyone heard you..."

"Everyone's preoccupied with the shooter," Conner replied flatly. "Who, by the way, I was going to take care of before you tackled me," he added resentfully. "Though I suppose you were planning on taking care of him too."

Wally grinned at the suggestion. "Jeez, don't you ever cheer up? I'm getting there, no need to rush me. You'd better stick around afterwards so we can catch up, though," he insisted, giving Conner a friendly slap on the shoulder before running off to take care of the shooter.

It was simple, really, to just ram his shoulder into the man's gut and sling him over his shoulder. But of course, as soon as he had handed the man over to the police and talked to a few of the officers, he realized that there was one fewer cop there than there was supposed to be. He didn't even have to look to realize that his old teammate had left the scene. And at the same time, he noticed that the note in his pocket had gone cold.

Wally, now in his civvies, knocked on the door of the apartment in front of him.  
He heard the lock click as someone opened the door from the other side, and then, "Took you long enough for someone who's got speed powers."

Wally resisted the urge to smile and give some kind of witty response. Years of trying to cheer up his usually stoic friend had gotten him used to smiling a lot around the clone, but this wasn't the time. "We need to talk," he said instead, stepping past Conner and into the apartment. "And I'm pretty sure you know what I'm referring to." He held up the note Zatanna had charmed, raising an eyebrow at Conner.

The clone sighed dejectedly and took the note out of Wally's hand, watching it crumble into ashes as the spell canceled itself. "And here I was thinking you might not notice that I wasn't surprised to see you alive. I guess it never even mattered."

Wally gave a wry smile. "I didn't even know you were here. I guess it was just luck that I ran into you." His smile disappeared as he continued, "You'd better tell me what's up, or I'm going to bring the rest of the League out here, and I get the feeling that you haven't told them that you're here."

Conner frowned. "The threat was unnecessary, Wally. I was just going to offer you a seat before I told you anything," he added, stepping through another doorway into a cramped kitchen. "It's a long story, since I assume the League hasn't told you much. Probably because they haven't figured anything out, really."

Wally watched Conner push a pile of newspapers to the side of the table, absentmindedly noting that some of them seemed to be from Central City, before the half-Kryptonian pulled out a chair and offered it to him. After Wally was seated, Conner wedged another chair in between the table and the wall for himself.

"So the League told you about Barry, right?" Conner began tentatively.

"Yeah, and that I've been dead for a year," was Wally's response. "Honestly, I just want to know why you were beating the crap out of me the other day, so if we could skip to that part..."

Conner shook his head. "Trust me, I generally dislike talking a lot, but this is necessary. It all started when you died."

"'It'?"

"Hey, do you want to know what happened or not?" Conner growled frustratedly. "Just let me finish.

"Everyone was really messed up when you died. I was messed up, and I hadn't even seen you in almost a year. You didn't even bother to come to HQ ever, though I suppose you had your secret plan thing going on with Nightwing and Artemis." He paused to give Wally an irritated look.

"Anyways, that's not the point. I went with Nightwing for a bit to check out where you disappeared, but we couldn't find anything, and everyone was just taking it really bad, so... I talked to Klarion."

"You _what_?"

"Wally, I'm trying to give you the short version. If you want all my motives, we're going to be here for hours," Conner shot back angrily. "It's already hard enough to tell you this crap, so don't push me."

"Okay, fine, but why the hell would you-"

"I _said_ stop interrupting," Conner growled, slamming his fist on the flimsy table to emphasize his point.

Wally decided to sit back and listen for the rest of the conversation.

A few moments later, once Conner was sufficiently calmed down, he started his story up again.

"So, I went and found Klarion. It wasn't easy, mind you, especially considering I couldn't get help from any of the rest of the team. For some reason, nobody seemed to remember that there were four of us at Cadmus... Dick had to go on some soul-searchy mission, and Kaldur had to run the team, so nobody really noticed when I left. And that was perfect, 'cause then I could do my part of the deal without anyone noticing either." Conner paused for a moment, then added, "I suppose Wolf noticed. He... he's probably okay though, Gar knows how to take care of him."

Wally pretended not to notice the waver in his old teammate's voice and let him pause again before finishing.

"...I ended up making a deal with Klarion. He said he'd bring you back from wherever you were, and all I had to do..." He stopped to take a deep breath, as if he had to steel himself for the next part. "...All I had to do was help the Light out. It was a great deal, and I... I got to... start over here. Nobody here knows I'm Superman's clone. All I have to do is do Klarion favors every once in a while, and you get to stay alive."

"Every once in a while?" Wally repeated, trying to keep a condescending note out of his voice. "You're /helping/ the Light. How on Earth do you think this is okay?"

"Wally, if I don't do it then you'll go back to being gone. I... I can't do that." Conner sat back and crossed his arms to pointedly end the conversation.

Wally wasn't done yet though. "You ass, that doesn't justify anything!" he retorted angrily. "I don't know why you thought this arrangement was okay in the first place, because I'm not worth even _one_ favor for the Light. You saw me, I couldn't even last a few minutes against you. What do you think I'm going to do, suddenly come back and save the world or something? You sold your soul to the Light for nothing, Conner."

"Wally, the League needed someone to be the Flash. They didn't need me. It was a fair trade. And it's /my/ decision." The clone emphasized his last sentence with an angry glance at Wally. "If you're going to try to change my mind, you might as well leave. It's not happening."

"Fine, have fun with the bad guys. I'm going to go tell the League about it," Wally replied, standing up and pushing his chair in with a clatter. "I've been here for a few minutes and I already can't stand your attitude about this whole thing. You might be okay with just rolling over and letting the Light do what they want, but I'm not." He turned to stalk out of the room, but a touch on his arm made him pause.

"Please don't." The sudden absence of anger in Conner's voice caught Wally's attention enough to make him turn back around. "You can't tell them. They'll come get me, and then Klarion will send you back-"

"What do you care?" Wally interjected, pulling his hand away. "Why did you even make this deal in the first place? You're the last person I'd expect to volunteer for the Light."

"What, I'm not allowed to care about you?" It took Wally a moment to realize that Conner looked genuinely hurt at his remark. He couldn't think of a time he'd ever seen that emotion on his teammate before. After a moment, though, it disappeared, replaced by Conner's usual controlled expression. "I can't care about the person who taught me how to take a joke? I guess I assumed too much when I thought we were friends," the clone finished, standing up and walking over to the door. "Well, you might as well leave. Give me some time to pack before the League shows up."

Wally sighed and moved over to stand next to the door as well. "...I won't tell, okay? Just... give me some time to work this all out. There's gotta be a way to get you out of this deal."

Conner nodded, and Wally thought he might have almost smiled for a moment, but then Wally was pushing the door open and walking out onto the landing before he could change his mind. He kept walking, not stopping until he was at the stairwell and could turn the corner to be out of Conner's sight.

Wally paused for a second, leaning against a wall while he processed what exactly he had just agreed to.

He was going to lie.

To the Justice League. Which included his best friend and his mentor.

He sighed and slid slowly down the wall until he was sitting on the ground. He'd hate it, but he'd do it. He owed Conner that much.


End file.
